Chapter 121: Indigestion.
"Hermione you alright?" Loki asked with worry as he looked at his long-time friend scratching her already bushy hair and making it even more bushy somehow.
Hermione looked at Loki with her panda-like eyes that were covered in exhaustion. As she stood up she ended up dropping the pile of papers on her onto the floor creating a rain of papers for a few seconds.
Trying to stand up straight, Hermione stumbled and fell onto Loki who promptly caught her.
"Just what happened to you!?" Loki asked worried.
"I- there are- I-" But before Loki could hear anything else he promptly felt Hermione fall asleep on his shoulders.
Worried Loki shook her but she didn't respond causing him to worry even further. So he laid her on the floor and rushed to the hospital wing.
"Madam Pomfrey!" Loki shouted entering the hospital wing as he found her reading a book. 'Foods around the world, Edition 1011.'
"Shhh!!!! This is the hospital boy! Not your personal market!"
Loki who had reached her whispered silently with the same amount of urgency, "Madam Pomfrey! It's Hermione! She's collapsed."
Madam Pomfrey gave Loki a scrutinising look but then said, "Lead the way." and immediately stood up to follow him. 'Why does this girl always collapse when he's around?'
Loki took her all the way to room number 2 - 21 and showed her to Hermione who had collapsed on the floor.
Madam Pomfrey pulled out her neat wand and tapped it on Hermione to cast a few diagnostic charms and only after an entire minute did she turn toward Loki and speak calmly.
"She's collapsed from overwork. I don't think she's slept in a few days which was why she collapsed at the first sign of relaxation."
"*sigh* I suspected as much but this is too much. I should've known this would happen given how excited she was to handle these matters. I want to keep her away from work for the next few days, could you hold her in the hospital wing for a bit Madam?" Loki asked politely and Madam Pomfrey looked at Hermione before nodding, "It is my duty to see that children are safe and secure within these walls."
With a wave of her wand, Hermione floated up as her clothes pulled her along and Madam Pomfrey turned to Loki with a smile and patted his shoulders, "It's nice to have you back here in Hogwarts Mr. Loki even though you didn't come to see me sooner."
"Ah! I'm sorry for that. I've been a little busy with something else. But I've been meaning to thank you too, for the store you gave me the address to." Loki said with a short swift bow.
"*sigh* the things you have to do for kids nowadays. Anyway, make sure you take care of your friend before it reaches this point next time."
"Yes, mam!" Loki nodded and Madam Pomfrey left, carrying Hermione behind her.
Moving around the room, Loki found the piles of paper that Hermione was buried under and began to organise them in the order that Hermione had written them as he spotted several articles derived from the various stories given by the ghosts of Hogwarts.
In one of the papers he found a list of all the ghosts Hermione had spoken to and noticed something curious, "The Grey Lady doesn't like talking huh." Loki wondered out loud as he saw Hermione strike the name from her list of ghosts and write down beside it, 'Rude and bad.'
Making sure that nothing was left out, Loki finished organising everything so that it would be in the best shape once Hermione returned to work.
He decided that since he'd been busy all week since he arrived at Hogwarts he would take the opportunity to take a break himself to visit all the animals in the Forbidden Forest and the soon-to-be mascot of the school, Norberta, he was dearly missing all of them.
"Awww….who's a good boy!!" Loki cooed as he played with the Unicorn Foal in front of him while scratching it on his neck.
*Neigh*
"Did you miss me!?"
*Neeeiigghh!*
"Haha~ I missed you too!" Loki said arranging himself to play with the Unicorns until sundown when he'd go back to the castle.
The Unicorns and Loki played for a bit with Loki helping out the slightly wounded unicorns like Hagrid did, after which he quickly departed for the castle where he ate dinner and went to the dungeons to meet Norberta.
Except someone else was already standing by the dragoness's side when he arrived there.
"Headmaster Dumbledore!?" Loki exclaimed in barely above a whisper but it seemed the headmaster had heard him clearly.
"Hello, Mr. Loki." Dumbledore politely greeted.
Loki nodded back as he looked at Norberta who was acting completely submissive in front of Dumbledore.
"Marvelous creatures aren't they? Dragons?" Dumbledore spoke while scratching the Norwegian ridgeback under her chin.
"They are Professor." Loki nodded with a smile as he too moved towards the dragon and copied what Dumbledore was doing.
It was rare for Norberta to allow anyone to touch her without being tossed onto a tree and he wasn't going to miss the chance.
"I hear you're attending DADA classes once again my boy, do you like the professor this year?"
Loki blushed in embarrassment and stuttered for a bit before finally managing to cough a few words out, "Well- I- see- I mean Professor Lockhart only reads through the books, but his practical tips and tricks he explains are something worth learning. All he's telling comes from experience after all."
"That is true, very true." Dumbledore nodded and it caused his beard to shake in waves.
"I heard you're writing a newspaper aimed at Hogwarts students?"
"Yes, Professor! But to have a wizard as great as you look forward to it! I don't know if I can match your expectations. It's a little embarrassing even."
"Don't worry. In fact, I was wondering if I could purchase a spot to advertise something specifically."
"Advertising something?" 'What does he need to advertise? And that too in a small upcoming newspaper? Can't he just announce it at the Hogwarts feast? Did he come to get scammed by me?'
"Yes, it has to do with the matter concerning Norberta. She is going to be announced as the school mascot and I want to announce her along with the newspaper's launch. Will that be alright? After all, I think the two would work well together."
"Oh…I'm sorry Professor but the Mascot for the paper has already been decided, its Miss Norris."
"Worry not, I'm not asking you to make her the Mascot. But a border mention will be nice."
'Why? To bring awareness about Dragons?'
'...?' unable to understand the whims of the old man in front of him, Loki managed his expression and spoke quickly.
"Oh!~ Yes, sir! I can arrange such things and for you, I will only charge half the rate since you're the Headmaster."
"Oh? And how much would that be?"
"About ten gallons for a one-time advertisement and a few extra for making her our secondary mascot? Let's say thirty-five galleons?", Loki said happily not losing the opportunity to make some money.
'I increased the price of the advertisement to twenty galleons a few seconds before agreeing to this deal, so it doesn't matter if the original was only three galleons, right?'
'And the cost I'm taking for making Norberta the secondary mascot sounds reasonable…'
'Well, he's bound to be rich anyway, I'm sure he can afford to get scammed.'
Loki left Norberta with slightly deeper pockets and a happy smile on his face as he went back to the classroom turned operations room 2-21 and stored his money in a desk that Professor Snape had personally enchanted with Professor Flitwick's help to be locked unless opened by Loki or Hermione.
'I'll meet Hermione tomorrow when she wakes up. I'm sure she's bound to be a little irritated about being stuck in the hospital wing but I'll give her a book to make up for it.'
'Perhaps I should make her a gift to let her sense her Body of Heart and Mind since she was also interested in learning occlumency. And given the hazardous nature of our line of work, I'm sure she also needs to protect her mind.'
'But is that possible?'
'I could just ask Kreacher for another chain like the one he gave me.'
'By the way, why didn't my potion digest further if I scammed 'Adam'?'
'Is it indigestion?'
'Or does the chain Kreacher gave me not work on him?'
'Damn…hopefully it isn't that.'
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A/N : We've crossed three hundred powerstones! There'll be an extra chapter today or tomorrow! Look forward to it!
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